Rupinder Mohan Singh |

Sikh boys refused entry to a go-karting attraction in Livermore, California, because they were wearing patkas. (Source: Sikh24)

No-karting for Sikh boys in CA

August 13, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In late July, at a theme park in Livermore, California (called Boomer’s Parks), several Sikh boys wearing patkas (a version of a turban for young Sikh boys) were not permitted to ride on go-karts because the owners of the attraction, Palace Entertainment, have a strict policy prohibiting loose hair or any kind of head-covering: “We’ve had a safety policy in place for quite some time at all our parks that prohibits hats, baseball caps, Yarmulkes,” [Palace Entertainment spokesperson Michele Wischmeyer] […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: AMC Theatres, Boomer's Parks, California, Kirpan, Livermore, Palace Entertainment, patka, Turban

Demonstrators protest against violence towards women. (Source: Washington Post)

The role of the religious in ending violence against women

August 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

By coincidence, an article in The Washington Post by Satpal Singh of the World Sikh Council offers a corollary to the recent post about contextualizing God using male-oriented pronouns. Satpal Singh discusses the issue of the status of women and the role that faith must play in promoting gender quality: As a first step, we must stop accusing God of misogyny and of creating women as inferior to men. We must stress in our religious services that God does not […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reflections, Sikhism • Tags: Satpal Singh, Sikh women, Washington Post, Women, Women in Sikhism, Women's rights, World Sikh Council

Junior Sikh Coalition invites submissions for art book

August 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Junior Sikh Coalition is an initiative of the Sikh Coalition to help develop leaders in local communities, providing young Sikhs with experience in organizing, advocacy, diversity education and civil rights. In a new project, the Junior Sikh Coalition is harnessing the power of art in advocacy with an unprecedented art collection called the Nirbhau Nirvair Poetry & Art Book to bring attention to issues such as bullying and hate crimes. Young Sikhs across to country are invited to submit […]

Categories: Art, Civil Rights, Literature • Tags: Junior Sikh Coalition, Nirbhau Nirvair Poetry & Art Book

How to tie a patka

August 8, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Little Sikhs and the Sikh Coalition have released a new brochure with instructions on how to tie a patka, a typical turban for young Sikh boys. This would have been helpful for my kindergarten teacher, who, when my patka once came off while playing in class, had no idea how to retie it on my head. My mother later gave a modified head covering to my teacher in case such an instance happened to me again, but I would imagine […]

Categories: Education, Sikhism • Tags: Keerat Kaur, Little Sikhs, patka, Saffron Press, Sikh Coalition, Turban

Vandal of Jurupa Valley, CA, Gurdwara, arrested

August 8, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

A juvenile has been arrested in last week’s vandalism of a Gurdwara in Jurupa Valley, California, when the word “terrorist” was spray-painted on the walls of the Sikh house of worship: Investigators conducted a lengthy investigation into the vandalism that led to the arrest of a juvenile responsible for the temple vandalism. Subsequent investigation revealed that the same juvenile was also responsible for an ongoing vandalism spree that began in August of 2012, resulting in 33 separate vandalism crimes, totaling […]

Categories: Hate Crimes • Tags: California, Graffiti, hate crimes, Jurupa Valley, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, vandalism

"Expansive God." (Source: Art for God's Sake)

God, in the female

August 6, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On Patheos, Deborah W. Dykes questions the use of masculine pronouns when referring to God, and the implications this has for young girls: Questioning the use of male pronouns to refer to God is unimaginable for some people. Male language about God so permeates our thinking and our conversation we don’t even hear or recognize it. Obviously, none of us sets out to harm our children, anyone’s children. But, harm them we do. Today, most of us do not intend […]

Categories: Interfaith, Sikhism • Tags: Deborah W. Dykes, Sikh women, Women in Sikhism

"Terrorist" spray-painted on a wall at the Sikh Gurdwara of Riverside, in Jurupa Valley, California. (Source: PEBloggers)

Gurdwara near Riverside, CA, vandalized with graffiti

July 30, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Only days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting attack at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, the Sikh Gurdwara of Riverside, in Jurupa Valley, California, has been vandalized with the word “terrorist” spray-painted twice on its walls: “This is definitely a hate crime,” [Birpal Kaur, of SALDEF,] said. “It was very purposely targeted toward a minority community.” A police report was filed with the Riverside County Sheriff. Incidentally, Jurupa Valley, California, is also home to a school […]

Categories: Hate Crimes • Tags: California, Graffiti, hate crimes, Jurupa Valley, Riverside, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Sikh Gurdwara of Riverside, vandalism

UCLA study links obesity with Sikh religiosity

July 30, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In 2011, an article in TIME magazine discussed a study that correlated a person’s risk of obesity with their attendance of religious services, finding that “…people who went to church or church activities at least once a week were more than twice as likely as people with no religious involvement to become obese.” While the results of the study was not specific to Sikhs or Sikh Americans, I considered the Sikh context — particularly as it relates to the Sikh […]

Categories: Reports/Studies, Sikhism • Tags: Gurdwara, Langar, obesity, University of California Los Angeles

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill lay a wreath at the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi on July 23. Gandhi's granddaughter, Tara Gandhi, is at right. (Source: Deccan Chronicle)

The Veep visits India

July 24, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

As Vice President Joe Biden visits India this week, I was reminded of President Barack Obama’s visit to India in late 2010, in which he avoided visiting the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, Punjab, a site which reportedly draws up to a hundred thousand of visitors per day, not including Presidents of the United States. For a well-known location which has such appeal to Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike and to residents of and visitors to India, it was noteworthy that […]

Categories: 1984, Politics • Tags: 1984, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Amritsar, anti-Sikh pogroms, Barack Obama, Darbar Sahib, drug trade, drugs, Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, Joe Biden, Mahatma Gandhi, November 1984, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF, Vice President of the United States

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Author Archives: Rupinder Mohan Singh